Food ✪✪ Ambience ✪✪✪
Service ✪✪✪
33 Dean Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 1PQ
0191 232 5533
Accessibility: Yes
Gluten Free?: Yes
www.marcopolonewcastle.com
“Very good, slightly better than 20/20,” said the brisk chap at my opticians, as I tried on my new bi-focals.
As someone not in the habit of receiving praise from health professionals, this verdict came as a very happy surprise.
Better than 20/20? That, as far as I was concerned, was practically a super power. I walked out feeling on top of the world, making a point of having a damn proper look at everything with my turbo-powered eye-glasses and fully expecting to get the call from Charles Xavier any minute. And then I sort of forgot all about it and got on with life, as you do. Until a couple of weeks ago.
“Christ, what font is that? I can’t read the bloody thing at all,” said my friend.
“Can’t be more than 7 point,” agreed Mrs Diner. “This is hopeless.”
Four of us were sat in Marco Polo, but while the other three hunted out their reading specs and switched on their iPhone torches to see better, I alone was able to make out the bill of fare.
Seriously: whatever possessed them to squeeze every dish, wine, soft drink, cocktail and coffee they serve, not to mention their contact details, tips policy and mission statement all onto one place-setting sized piece of paper is anyone’s guess. Maybe it results in people ordering at random, which is good for stock rotation. Or perhaps the owners have a long-standing grudge against the visually challenged. Who knows.
